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Sociolinguistics from the Periphery "presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users."

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It has already been affirmed that there are power and asymmetries incourtroom discourse. The courtroom professional such as judges,magistrates, lawyers and prosecutors have power over the defendants andwitnesses. (Danet, 1984, Luchjenbroers, 1997). This book attempts toprovide an explanatory account of linguistic communication between legalprofessional such as lawyers and prosecutors and the witnesses with a viewto show the power prevalent in the courtroom discourse. To this end,various forms of questions such as WH-questions, alternative questions,yes/no questions and declarative questions were analysed to account for thediscoursive practices between the lawyers, prosecutors and the witnesses.The framework of this study is supplied by Luchjenbroers (1993).Additionally, WH-questions and declarative in their various forms arefurther analysed which reveal further manipulation by lawyers to maintaincontrol over courtroom discourse.

The data are 20 hours of audio-taped cases recorded at the High Courts ofJustice and Magistrate Courts in Nigeria. The cases collected includeassault, theft, house breaking, land, mutiny and rental. The keysuggestions in this book are that narrative mode is indispensable in thefact-finding process which explains why it is favoured during examination.Also questions that contain propositions and presuppositions are strongweapon for the lawyers in controlling, convincing and persuading thewitnesses to endorse their ideas. The four analysis carried out in thethesis suggest the fact that lawyers maintain tight control of courtroomdiscourse.